The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-09-17
WHAT is HYPNOTISM7
The Way 1t Was Discovered and Explain
ed by an English Physician.

In 1S41 James Braid was in practice
as physician at Manchester. Thither
came La Fontaine leeturing on mes
merism and performing experiments of
the familiar type, illustrating the
theory of the stronger wi. and the
dominant idea. Braid was interested
in the lectures, suspected the expert
ments to be impos' ures. and declared
the theory to be false. He worked at
the subject himself. and in the years
following issued several books contain
ing most remarkable experiences re-
garding what he called neuro-hypno-
tism, but which after him was for a
long time known as Braidism and is
now described in all the dictionaries
and text books as hypnotism. Braid
found that most of the phenomena
could be self-induced. That man, so
to speak. could mesmerize himself by
fixing his gaze OH some inanimate OBJ
ject and concentrating his attention.
He thus, to his satisfaction. proved
the subjective nature of the influence.
To talk of animal magnetism from an
inanimate object was absurd. Braidism
met with much opposition. 1t was
furiously attacked by the mesmerists,
whose very citadel it threatened. and it
was received with horror by large
section Of the public, who refused to
believe in the possibility of its phe-
nomena. There was no mystery as to
the method OF procedure. All that
Braid did was to take any bright OBJ
iect, such as his lancet case, between
the thumb and fore and middle fingers
of the left hand. and hold it from eight
to fifteen inches from the eyes of the
patient in such position above the
forehead as was necessary 10 produce
the greatest strain on the eyes and
eyelds. On this bright point the
patient was to stare iixedly. In ordi-
nary cases in fifteen seconds, il the
patients limbs were lifted they would
evince tendency to remain in the po-
sition to which they had been raised !;
in few seconds more strange feeling
of exaltation would spread through
ultll, III ~ lew StNOliuS i1Ott it WOuiu
be asleep and insensible to pain.
There never is any thing new. and.
of course. there was nothing new in
Braid's discovery. The magicians used
to hypc otize their believers by making
them gaze at the scratches on the crys-
tai sphere. The Egyptian priests hyp-
Noticed theirs by making them stare at
the mystic signs on the bright metal
mirror. The anchorites lifted their
eyes fixedly to the armament and went
off into ecstacy. The monks of Mount
Athos hung their heads and looked
downward until they felt their senses
swimming away, and the Indian ascot
les of 1887 gain hypnotic power by
squirting at the tips of their noses, as
their ancestors have done for ages
AS to mesmerizing animals
with the "passes." which, granting
Braid's theory, is the same thing rs
hypnotizing them, there are innumer-
able examples The iguana can be
hypnotized, so can the cobra, so can
the turtle. Secure their fixed atten-
ton for minute or two and they are
helpless. As it is with an ami
NAL so it is with man. Hold
his undivided attention for a short
period and he will fall away into q
state resembling catalepsy. Let him
look at a glittering piece of glass, a
diamond stud or an emerald pin, and
before his eyes have begun to ache he
will collapse. There is case on record
of student who was told he would be
hypnotized from distance at four
o'clock on a certain day. He was to
look at the clock little before to see
how the time was going. An umpire,
a well-known physician, was told off to
watch him. At minute or two to
four he looked at the clock, and his
gaze became fixed, and as the clock
struck he fell back as if he had been
sent to sleep with full mesmeric honors
1t does not suit every body to hypno-
tie, nor does it suit every body to be
hypnotized. The beginner, ''for fun, :"
may find the patient go off into convul-
sions, and refuse to be awakened by a
tap or puff SO it is best to leave ex-
perimenting to competent medical
practitioners. Leisure Hours